Department of Human and Social Sciences, University of Bergamo, Piazzale S. Agostino 2, Bergamo 24129, Italy. Electronic address:
Published: May 2024
AI Article Synopsis
Article Abstract
The posterior cerebellum is a recently discovered hub of the affective and social brain, with different subsectors contributing to different social functions. However, very little is known about when the posterior cerebellum plays a critical role in social processing. Due to its location and anatomy, it has been difficult to use traditional approaches to directly study the chronometry of the cerebellum. To address this gap in cerebellar knowledge, here we investigated the causal contribution of the posterior cerebellum to social processing using a chronometric transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) approach. We show that the posterior cerebellum is recruited at an early stage of emotional processing (starting from 100 ms after stimulus onset), simultaneously with the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS), a key node of the social brain. Moreover, using a condition-and-perturb TMS approach, we found that the recruitment of the pSTS in emotional processing is dependent on cerebellar activation. Our results are the first to shed light on chronometric aspects of cerebellar function and its causal functional connectivity with other nodes of the social brain.
Introduction: We investigated whether the cerebellum develops neuropathology that correlates with well-accepted Alzheimer's disease (AD) neuropathological markers and cognitive status.
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Bone or cartilage anomalies affecting the arteries supplying the brain can be a structural cause of ischemic stroke. Due to their rarity, there is currently no standardized approach for evaluating and treating these so-called bony strokes. We present a case of a 79-year-old woman with a history of cranial settling due to rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and moderate disability, who presented with insidious dizziness and gait disturbances over three weeks.
In term neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), cerebellar injury is becoming more and more acknowledged. Animal studies demonstrated that Purkinje cells (PCs) are especially vulnerable for hypoxic-ischemic injury. In neonates, however, the extent and pattern of PC injury has not been investigated.
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The posterior cerebellum and anterior basal ganglia are critical subcortical structures for learning and identifying dynamic action sequences, in concert with the neocortex. The present analysis investigates the role of action sequences during social mentalizing, termed here dynamic or sequential social mentalizing. Although the role of the cerebellum in dynamic social mentalizing was extensively investigated during the last decade, the basal ganglia were long ignored.
